Kukla's Korner Hockey

Entries with the tag: david backes

BOSTON - Boston Bruins Team Internist Dr. David Finn has issued the following update on forward David Backes :

"David Backes will undergo surgery on Thursday, November 2 to remove a portion of his colon. The expected recovery time is approximately 8 weeks. The decision to have surgery was made in consultation with team physicians as well as outside specialists in the management of diverticulitis. David's episode of diverticulitis at the beginning of the season was his second episode in two months and was complicated with an abscess (collection of infection adjacent to the colon) that required drainage. Repeated episodes, like what David experienced, have a very high likelihood of recurrence in the near term, which is why he was advised to have surgery to remove the area of colon causing the problem. It was determined that attempting to delay the surgery until after the season was an unacceptable risk to his health.

David was cleared to play in the team's games on October 19 while waiting for his colon to properly heal from the most recent episode of diverticulitis which sidelined him for the first five games of the 2017-18 season. David was at no additional risk while playing during this period, and he is having the surgery as soon as the medical team felt comfortable moving forward with the operation."

“The guys that are great on faceoffs will still be great on faceoffs. It’s just a little bit of an adjustment. And they’ll probably, truthfully, learn to cheat on this one a little bit too. And Bergy will probably take 1200 draws this year and win 800 of them and he’ll be a Selke award winner. We’ll all have a hug, maybe after this next session, and life will go on.”

-David Backes of the Boston Bruins. Backes is a member of the NHL’s competition committee and has more to say to Matt Dolloff of CBS Boston.

BOSTON, MA - Boston Bruins General Manager Don Sweeney announced today, December 31, that forward David Backes has been diagnosed with a concussion and will be sidelined indefinitely as the team follows the NHL's concussion protocols. The injury occurred in the first period of the team's 4-2 win at Buffalo on Thursday, December 29.

Backes, 32, has skated in 33 games with the Bruins in 2016-17, recording nine goals and 10 assists for 19 points with 31 penalty minutes. The 6-foot-3, 221-pound forward also leads the team with 98 hits. In his 11-year NHL career, Backes has played in 760 games, compiling 215 goals and 264 assists for 479 points with 1,000 penalty minutes.

Boston Bruins General Manager Don Sweeney announced today, October 26, that the team has recalled forward Austin Czarnik from Providence (American Hockey League). Czarnik is expected to join the team for their pregame skate and be available for their game at N.Y. Rangers ‪on Wednesday, October 26, at 8 p.m.

Sweeney also announced the following update on forward David Backes :

"David Backes underwent the removal of the olecranon bursa from his elbow on Monday, October 24. His condition will be updated after the weekend."

On Tuesday, in the Americans’ 3-2 exhibition-finale win over Finland, Backes centered the fourth line between Justin Abdelkader and defenseman-turned-wing Dustin Byfuglien. Backes logged 13:28 of ice time, including 2:03 on the penalty kill, as fourth-line pivot and man-down specialist. Something will have gone very wrong if Backes is filling the same position in Boston.

The Bruins did not invest $30 million in the ex-Blues captain over five years to play him on the fourth line. Backes will be a go-to player, perhaps as the No. 2 right wing alongside David Krejci in the right-shot widebody role once played by Jarome Iginla and Nathan Horton. Backes could take late-game shifts with Brad Marchand and Patrice Bergeron to give the Bruins a stifling defensive line.

Or he could be the No. 3 center behind Bergeron and Krejci, moving Ryan Spooner to left wing. Backes will be a net-front presence on the power play, a regular penalty killer, and always counted on to bring the pain.

“He’s one of the best two-way centers,” Pietrangelo said. “He’s the best net-front guy I’ve ever seen. I’ve never seen a guy be able to tip a puck as well as he can. He does everything. He scores goals. He makes plays. His biggest thing is being able to play the defensive side of the game. He’s a guy who can shut down anybody. He plays big minutes on the penalty kill, power play. If you’re looking for a guy who can play in all situations, Dave’s going to be the guy.”

“Yeah, I would welcome the responsibility,” he said. “I think being so close with Dave over the five years he was captain, I’ve learned a lot from him just kind of sitting back and seeing how he operates on a daily basis. Not only on the ice but off the ice, which is a big part of it trying to keep the locker room together and doing the off-ice stuff.

“He was always trying to help me through that. I think he knew this opportunity might come some day for me. He was always willing to answer my questions, and I was always eager to ask him. So if there is a guy that I was lucky to learn from, it was him. Being such good friends of his made it that much easier.”

With five years and $30 million as bait, general manager Don Sweeney reeled in Backes on Friday, officially making him the Blues’ former captain.

Part of Sweeney’s job is to procure reinforcements to complement Patrice Bergeron, Tuukka Rask, David Krejci, Brad Marchand, and Zdeno Chara, his primary strongmen, until their successors are ready to execute their share of grunt work. Backes is another piece for Sweeney to insert while he waits for Charlie McAvoy, Brandon Carlo, Jakob Forsbacka Karlsson, Zach Senyshyn, and Jake DeBrusk, among others, to spit out their pacifiers and replace them with mouthguards.

The trouble with bridges, though, is they tend to be long, expensive, and subject to wear and tear.

Backes is 32, older than every member of his new core group except for the 39-year-old Chara.

The Blues believed they were in the running with Backes until the end, but in the end, the team chose not to match the length of the deal he received from the Bruins.

"We talked last night and again this morning," Blues general manager Doug Armstrong said. "At the end of the day, the term was a concern for myself. David is a great player, and he's been a great Blue, and we wish him nothing but the best. But when you project out long-term, it was problematic for me personally to project out that far with players.

"There's analytical data that shows where players play at their peak, and we wanted to try to stay within a window. We were ready to stretch that window, but only to a certain level. That's more of a personal thing than anything. Ultimately, David took a really good offer from Boston, and we wish him nothing but the best. He'll be sorely missed."

In addition to losing Backes, the Blues will also move on without Troy Brouwer, who signed in Calgary. He inked a four-year, $18 million deal ($4.5 million).

At some point soon, pending unrestricted free agent David Backes will make a decision that will have ramifications on many levels.

Will Backes leave the only organization he's ever known, the Blues, who selected him in the second round of the 2003 NHL draft and appointed him the 20th captain in franchise history in 2011? If he does, who does the club turn to for its next leader?

Will Backes, who let the tears roll in a postgame interview following the Blues’ playoff loss to San Jose in the Western Conference finals, continue the quest for the organization’s first Stanley Cup? If he doesn’t, how does the team reload?

A career — and potentially franchise-altering — verdict could be known in the next 24 hours, as Backes and the Blues approach the start of free agency without a contract extension for the 32-year-old forward. Opposing clubs were allowed to begin courting unrestricted free agents last Saturday, and the period to sign them opens at 11 a.m.(CT) Friday.

The cynic in me can’t help but look beyond this year’s Stanley Cup playoffs and toward free agency, where Backes, 32, will join a slew of other unrestricted free agents looking for the next payday. If you believe that recent postseason performance tends to correlate strongly with premiums paid in the subsequent free agency year (how could you not?), you have to wonder how much Backes is going to cost. You also have to wonder if the Blues could find themselves in the position of questioning whether or not it makes sense to retain their leader.

St. Louis has done a pretty nice job of managing the cap, and should have a fair bit of breathing room to acquire talent in the coming off-seasons. The $58 million already committed to next year’s team is a bit misleading when you consider that they have decisions to make on Jaden Schwartz, Troy Brouwer, Steve Ott, Kyle Brodziak,Magnus Paajarvi, and Scottie Upshall this summer, and Kevin Shattenkirk, Colton Parayko, Patrik Berglund, and Alex Steen a year from now. Not all of these players will be retained, but the overarching point is that the money available today is likely overstating what type of money will be available to retain an unrestricted free agent like Backes.

The curious part about the Backes situation from the St. Louis perspective is that his strong playoff run has masked what has been a bit of a decline in performance over the last couple of seasons. No doubt St. Louis loves his game and what he brings to the table today, but will they love what he brings a few years from now? And how much do you weigh that against St. Louis’ Stanley Cup window, which is indisputably closing?

Some perspective: This postseason Backes has scored two more playoff goals than in his previous 29 playoff games combined. His career was without a playoff power play goal and a playoff game-winner headed into Round 1 against the Blackhawks. Oh, and Backes' six assists this postseason are just two shy of his previous playoff totals combined....

The contract that pays him $4.5 million per year is near its end. He is set to become an unrestricted free agent on July 1. In late January, Post-Dispatch Blues beat writer Jeremy Rutherford reported negotiations between the Blues and Backes had been infrequent since Backes declined an extension offer of three years at approximately $5.5 million per season.

Things have changed since then. Backes' postseason play has increased his value. The Blues should be more interested in keeping him around. And Backes could find it harder to leave after this run — although receiving more money to go elsewhere tends to make that decision simple. There will be suitors if the Blues don't lock him in.

"He's got a lot of miles on his body, just from the way he's played, but he can obviously still play at a very high level," former Blues captain Dallas Drake recently said of the current captain. "He's proven that in the playoffs. You've gotta be careful writing guys off too early. There are a lot of teams that would love to have him on their roster. I'm sure whatever happens next year, whether it's St. Louis or somewhere else, he'll have plenty of candidates knocking on his door."

Backes is basically a microcosm of the Blues, a regular-season stalwart who finally scaled the playoff wall. Backes and his Blues did it together. A separation after this just wouldn't feel right.

ST. LOUIS – St. Louis Blues President of Hockey Operations and General Manager Doug Armstrong announced today that forward David Backes and goaltender Jake Allen will miss the remainder of the regular season with lower-body injuries.

Both will be re-evaluated at the conclusion of the regular season.

Backes, 31, has dressed in all 79 games this season, ranking second on the club with 21 goals and fourth with 45 points overall. The Minneapolis, Minnesota native is currently in his 10th NHL season after being drafted by the Blues in the second round (62nd overall) of the 2003 NHL Entry Draft. Backes has tallied 460 points (206 goals, 254 assists) and 969 penalty minutes in 727 career regular season games.

Allen, 25, has appeared in 47 games this season, posting a 26-15-3 record. In addition, he shares 10th overall with a .920 save percentage and second with six shutouts. The Fredriction, New Brunswick, native is currently in his third NHL season after being drafted by the Blues in the second round (34th overall) of the 2008 NHL Entry Draft. In 99 career regular season games, Allen has accumulated a 57-26-7 record, a 2.34 goals against average, a .915 save percentage and 11 shutouts.

According to the Ottawa Sun's Bruce Garrioch, NHL GM's are entering the period in which they must decide whether they're going to buy to "contend" or sell at the trade deadline, which hits on February 29th this year. That's not an easy decision to make given how tight the standings have been and will continue to remain going forward.

Winnipeg Jets: All eyes are on captain Andrew Ladd and blueliner Dustin Byfuglien. “I don’t believe they’ll both be there after the deadline,” a league executive said Friday. The talk is the Jets tabled a six-year, $6 million deal to Ladd before the season, and that somehow the deal will get done.

Nobody is quite as optimistic about Byfuglien. He has emerged as one of the best players in the league, is a difference maker, and will cash in on the UFA market in the summer. “He’s just a hell of player,” said the executive.

St. Louis Blues: We’re not talking about a franchise with an ownership group that has deep pockets. GM Doug Armstrong has apparently put talks with centre David Backes on hold and with a $4.5 million cap hit he’s going to want a big raise if he’s going to stay with the Blues.

He could fetch a lot in return but the Blues are a contender in the West and they should be looking to add, not subtract. Teams will call but Armstrong has to tread carefully here.

New York Islanders: The sense is there won’t be any deal involving defenceman Travis Hamonic, who asked for a trade a personal reasons, until the NHL entry draft in June. A league executive said: “Garth Snow isn’t going to make this deal unless he gets good value in return.”

Teams have been calling the Isles about UFA winger Kyle Okposo, and why not? You never know where Snow is concerned, but the 27-year-old has a $2.7 million cap hit. The thinking amongst teams is he won’t be going anywhere because the Islanders are in the race and want to stay there.

He's one of the nicest guys you'll ever come across -- smiling, polite and with choir-boy good looks. He's also a very talented and hard-working hockey player out of Spring Lake Park High School and Minnesota State Mankato.

Yup, he's a local boy and a proud former Olympian. Oh, and one other thing about him: Minnesota hockey fans hate his guts. Just the sight of him gets their blood-pressure rising and their pulses racing to dangerously high levels.

He's David Backes, captain of the St. Louis Blues. And he is Public Enemy No. 1 during this first-round series.

"I take that as a vote of confidence that I'm doing my job," Backes said. "That's part of the business, and I'm hopefully going to be Public Enemy No. 1 this summer. That's my goal."

Backes was thankful that the NHL's Player Safety Department saw the hit on the Capitals' Karl Alzner the way hit did, deciding not to issue supplemental discipline.

"Yeah, it's nine years now and I've had one major penalty that was quickly rescinded right after that," Backes recalled. "Now this one, where I think it's pretty benign — he hops back up and doesn't miss a shift.

"Never looking to hurt anyone out there. The rules are the rules, I guess, and if there's blood, (then the ejection was warranted).

via Jeremy Rutherford of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch where you can read more on the Blues...

“It kind of gave me a sick feeling in my stomach to think that it’s my hometown. I’ve been here for nine years. It’s not just the local news. It’s national news, it’s probably international news. To know what a great place St.Louis is, and to raise a family here and to now have these scars and stereotypes, or whatever it may be, about it being a city of unrest and not safe. We’ve got a lot of healing to do, locally in Ferguson, with all the relationships, and patching them back together to (enhance) our reputation of what a great city this can be, and is, at its heart.”

-David Backes of the St. Louis Blues on the ongoing situation in Feguson, MO. More on this topic from Ken Warren of the Ottawa Citizen.

Via NHL.com's Sean Farrell, Darren Pang isn't kidding when he says, "That's not good." St. Louis Blues captain David Backes took a high but very legal hit and left St. Louis' 3-2 OT loss to Ottawa with, well, this:

St. Louis Blues captain David Backes left the game against the Ottawa Senators on Monday during the second period with an upper-body injury.

Backes skated slowly off the ice and went to the dressing room with 2:49 left in the second after he collided with Ottawa's Colin Greening on an open-ice hit. He will not return, the Blues said.

Backes had seven hits and won 71 percent of faceoffs in 11:20 in ice time before he left the game. He has 16 goals and 14 assists this season, second on the team behind linemate Alexander Steen (35) in points.

After the game, Blues coach Ken Hitchcock had this to say to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch's Jeremy Rutherford:

The Wall Street Journal's Brian Costa spoke with Nashville Predators GM and Team USA GM David Poile and several of his likely Olympic team players about the differences between the 2010 Olympics in Vancouver and those to be held in Sochi in February. He brings up one point we've already heard being discussed--the soccer-like style and pace of play that European teams tend to play on 200-foot-long by 100-foot-wide rinks (as opposed to North American rinks, which are 85 feet wide)...

The difference between Vancouver, where the U.S. won silver in 2010, and Sochi isn't so much about geography as it is space. In the U.S. and Canada, the standard rink size is 85 feet wide. In Europe, rinks are 100 feet wide. A smaller playing surface lends itself to the more aggressive, bruising style of play that dominates the NHL. On the larger European surface, it's more a game of speed and finesse.

"The difference is a lot bigger than fans think," said Pittsburgh Penguins defenseman and Team USA hopeful Paul Martin. "You have more room to cover, especially around the nets."

And he duly notes the reason why Team Canada's World Junior team now brings its own chefs to overseas tournaments, and the vast majority of players will have difficulty finding palatable food, "comfort zones" in terms of their accommodations and might deal with a bit of culture shock in Sochi, where we've been told that "there's nothing to do" at the Olympic facilities in terms of filling free time because they're still being constructed:

St. Louis Blues captain David Backes and his wife Kelly have announced their new public foundation Athletes for Animals.

Athletes for Animals is designed to bring professional athletes together in support of companion animals across the country. The Backes’ were inspired by nearly a decade of animal welfare and rescue efforts and decided that it was time to make a larger impact on the lives of homeless companion animals nationwide.

What is the difference in mindset and pressure when you expect to make the playoffs, like the Blues do now, as opposed to the time when you were just hoping to get there?

"I think when you're hoping to make the playoffs, you think it's OK to fail and you think about, 'Oh, we lost tonight, but we were slotted to not make the playoffs anyway.' There is always a desire to win, but when it doesn't happen you say, 'If this was different,' or, 'If we had a better team.' There are excuses when you're not expecting it.

"When you're expecting to make the playoffs, it's, 'Let's see results.' If you're not getting them, you're in a mode where things are going to change. I don't think of it as pressure, I think of it as expectations, and when you're prepared for those expectations you don't see it as pressure. I don't think they're parallel by any means."

Sometime after 6:30 p.m., Hitchcock called from his car – probably somewhere on I-70 or I-71 – as he made the seven-hour drive from his last stop in Columbus, Ohio, to what would be his renaissance in St. Louis. They spoke for about an hour.

Hitchcock told (David) Backes he put a lot of trust in his captains and expected a lot of them, too. He told him to lead by example, to try to inspire others to follow, to make sure the Blues were tough to play against, to never give anyone free ice. He explained what had to change immediately and what would take time.

“It was a good conversation, time well spent,” Backes said. “As you can see, the results have proven themselves.”

The Blues beat the Blackhawks that Tuesday night, 3-0. They have gone 23-6-7 since Hitchcock’s arrival. They’re in the thick of the NHL’s toughest division – heading into Friday’s action they are six points behind the league-leading Detroit Red Wings, one point behind the Nashville Predators and tied with the Blackhawks, with three games in hand on all three of them.

ST. LOUIS – St. Louis Blues Executive Vice President and General Manager Doug Armstrong along with Head Coach Davis Payne announced today the club has named David Backes the 20th captain in franchise history. In addition, the club named Barret Jackman, Jamie Langenbrunner, Andy McDonald and Alex Steen assistant captains.

ST. LOUIS – St. Louis Blues Executive Vice President and General Manager Doug Armstrong announced today the club has signed forward David Backes to a five-year contract extension.

“David could have been an unrestricted free agent at the end of this season and we are excited that he has made the long term commitment to the Blues organization,” said Armstrong. “The way he handles himself on and off the ice represents what the Blues are all about.”

“I am ecstatic to have this deal signed and to be a Blue for many years to come,” said Backes. “My wife and I love this city and these fans have been nothing but great to us. This is a great organization to play for, from top to bottom, and we expect to be a top team in this league.”

David Backes is another benefit of the collective bargaining agreement’s liberalized free-agent rules. The power winger will be eligible for unrestricted free agency July 1 and will turn 27 years old May 1.

There were preliminary talks between Backes’ camp and the St. Louis Blues before the season, but those talks have since been shelved ... for now. If I’m a betting man, I believe the Blues will pick up the phone again in 2011.

“It’s a dynamic situation,” Backes told ESPN.com on Tuesday. “Being an unrestricted free agent, they obviously can’t lose me for nothing and not get anything back. I need to have a good year to establish myself. I think they like me, and I love St. Louis. Hopefully something will get done during the season, but obviously there’s a business side to this game that if we can’t come to terms, then unfortunately we’ll have to maybe part ways.”

I don’t see this guy leaving St. Louis. My money’s on GM Doug Armstrong and agent Wade Arnott of Newport Sports Management figuring this out before July 1.

SN: From here, it looks like St. Louis has plenty of cap space and a team ready for a big free-agent addition. Are you disappointed by the lack of big moves from the front office this summer?

DB: I think they’re being smart about it. You don’t necessarily want to spend all your money and commit to long-term contracts to someone looking for the highest bidder. … We’re not spending to the cap but now we’ve got that room to add a few other trinkets to the puzzle in the season that other teams don’t have.